Monty and the Punk

My first post of 2009 and it’s not even about art or art modeling. Instead, it’s another cat update about Kate, Monty, and the feral crew of 32nd Road in Queens. For those of you following this saga, the elusive Kate is now returning to my property on a sporadic basis. Yes, the gorgeous little diva has deigned to cross over to the south side of the street. Slumming, I guess 🙂 She spends a little quality time with Monty, so I assume they’ve reconciled their relationship.

Monty, however, has a new little friend who I have named “the Punk”. The Punk is young, frisky, and rambunctious, a wild, undisciplined, immature adolescent. Monty loves him, but like all adults with youngsters, he’s not always in the mood for the Punk’s high energy antics, mischief, and insatiable need for attention.

I caught the two cuties having a moment the other day. A very cold day. And I’ve provided captions which communicate Monty’s thoughts. He is the striped boy on the right.

“Hi Punk. Please find a way to amuse yourself because I’m not in the mood.”

“Did you hear me, you silly child? I need my space. You look like a crazed maniac. Go stalk birds or something”

“Please, just let me sleep!”

“Oh no, what’s he doing?”

“Just a few quiet moments to myself. Is that too much to ask?”

“He’s behind me isn’t he? Oh joy. I’m gonna get pounced any second. I’m feral, I’m cold, the lady who feeds me is sticking a camera in my face, and I now I have this little Punk on my ass.”

Yes, we do have some organizations like that and I’m in contact with them. The only problem is that none of them do the trapping for you. You have to do it yourself. ASPCA will only come if you’re trapping a many cats at once (minimum of ten, I believe). Also, none of my local vets handle ferals, so I have to locate a vet that works with ferals.

However, in the case of Monty, he has been extremely friendly toward me lately. He rubs up against my leg and lets me pet him 🙂 He’s not afraid of me at all. So I’m thinking I might not need a trap if I can pick him up quickly and place him into a cat carrier. Then I can transport him myself. The Punk will be a trickier situation, though, because he’s incredibly active. And Kate is a lost cause. But a big black cat that roams the neighborhood has the tipped ear you mentioned. He’s an old fella, and was probably neutered a long time ago.

They are handsome aren’t they! Punk is quite photogenic I think. I hope he’s not out to overthrow Monty’s position, but you’re probably right. I want them to stay friends. Can’t they all just get along???? 😆

I’ve had a lot of experience with feral cats. When catching the cat and putting it (very quickly) into the carrier, I would strongly recommend thorn-proof gardening gloves, at the very least. Swaddling the cat firmly in a towel works too. All the same, expect there to be blood (yours.)